Immune related diseases and inflammatory diseases are the manifestation or consequence of fairly complex, often multiple interconnected biological pathways which in normal physiology are critical to respond to insult or injury, initiate repair from insult or injury, and mount innate and acquired defense against foreign organisms. Disease or pathology occurs when these normal physiological pathways cause additional insult or injury either as directly related to the intensity of the response, as a consequence of abnormal regulation or excessive stimulation, as a reaction to self, or as a combination of these. Many immune related diseases are known and have been extensively studied. Such diseases include, for example, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, non-immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, infectious disease, immunodeficiency disease, etc. It is known that a reduction in immune function leads to various diseases including cancer because a homeostasis maintaining a balance of a living body is broken by not properly treating an antigen from the outside. Particularly, it is reported that the immune function is gradually reduced with age and thus, a possibility of getting a cancer is increased, particularly an incidence of a cancer of liver and respirator system is greatly increased.
Furthermore, the antioxidation refers to the prevention of several oxidations occurring in a human body. The lipid present as a bio-membrane or a lipoprotein is attacked by free radicals occurring in a living body to form many kinds of peroxides. The peroxides and degradation products have a high reactivity and thus allow the structure and function of peripheral biomolecules to change, thereby leading to several chronic diseases. There are several antioxidation defense systems in vivo which can neutralize these free radicals and protect the body. However, when these antioxidation defense systems are lowered to the extent that they cannot adjust the creation of free radicals, oxidative stress and injury of the tissue are facilitated, and excessive free radicals and lipid peroxides produced in vivo lead to an increase of insult due to an oxidative stress such as an oxidation of protein and an injury of DNA (see Kumar C T., et al., Mol. Cell Biochem., 111, pp. 109-115, 1992). It is known that the reactive oxygen species (ROS) can be a main cause of inducing chronic degenerative diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, degenerative neuropathy and aging and that the antioxidants can help in the prevention of chronic degenerative diseases (Bray, T. M. Nutrition. 16, pp. 578-581, 2000).
On the other hand, arsenic has been known as a potent carcinogen, affecting skin and lung often, but it is a medicine used for the treatment of human diseases from about 2000 BC. In traditional Chinese medicine including Korean medicine, arsenic compounds had been prescribed for a long time to treat some fatal diseases. In old medical literatures of Korea and China, TongEuiBoGam describes that arsenic was prescribed as an oriental medicine by the name of Bisang and that arsenic was effective in managing choongak or vomiting when it was used after removal of its toxicity. Also, in an old literature of Chinese medicine (BonChoKangMok), the usage and pharmacological actions of arsenic by the name of HwangWoong are described.
Further, in Western medicine, it is described by Hippocrates, 460-377 BC and Galen, 130-200 AD that arsenic compounds were prescribed as a medicine for treating some diseases. Arsenic compounds were prescribed for treating several diseases, including rheumatism, syphilis, psoriasis, etc. and a low concentration of arsenic compounds had been known to act as a beneficial effect on physiological functions of a human body, including stimulation of hematopoiesis. The physiological activities of arsenic as set forth above had been recognized for a long time and actually used for clinical purposes. However, in Korea, arsenic has been regulated as a heavy metal and its use became very limited.
Recently, based on these pharmacological properties of arsenic, attempts to clinically apply them to an anti-cancer drug have been actively made. It was published in 1997 that arsenic trioxide (As2O3), a kind of arsenic compound, had an excellent effect in treating acute promyelocytic leukemia (see Shen Z X et al., Blood, 98: 3354-3360, 1997). Subsequently, its efficacy was demonstrated. Further, in Korean Patent Application No. 1998-16486, it is described in detail that, in the in vivo experiment using a mouse model, the arsenic compounds exhibit activities to inhibit the growth of malignant tumor and effectively inhibit tumor metastasis.
However, the above mentioned research results have suggested possibilities which can be used as a new medicine of arsenic compounds such as arsenic trioxide, but there remains still a need to ameliorate the toxicity of arsenic compounds which can be incurred in an actual application to a human body, and the susceptibility to arsenic at a low concentration.